Saltwater
by dreamfighter920
Summary: Scott Tracy has had his heart broken three times in his life, this is the story of those three times, featuring smol Scott, USAF Scott, and big brother Scott. Contains death and a little gore, tissue warning.
1. Chapter 1

Saltwater – A Scott Tracy Fanfiction

 **Saltwater: the three times that Scott Tracy had his heart broken.**

 **This spouted from a conversation I had with a friend about how I've never really written much about Scott, and how there isn't enough military Scott, and the fact that I feel very passionately about the bros finding love.**

 **Tissue warning alone with some pretty graphic death.**

Scott Tracy had had his heart broken three times in his life, and those three times only.

Nobody was to particularly to blame, it wasn't the same as being cheated on, it hurt far more when he knew that he was loved.

His heart was first broken by his mother, or rather her untimely death. A broken heart has never just applied to romantic love, nothing hurts quite like being torn away from the genuine love of a mother, something Scott knew all too well.

Symptoms of a broken heart include an endless pounding in your chest and a sick feeling in your stomach, when you first become terrified that a person who holds part of your very soul might be desperately hurt. Scott felt energy rush through his body as he heard the avalanche first, before looking around to see it. He knew his mother and youngest brother were further up the trail. He couldn't see them in the powdery haze that chased him, climbing to the skies in a billowing plume and rose up with the explosive volume and quickening rumbling to match. The snow bit at the heels of his boots as crouched further, trying to make himself speed up, continuously looking back as often as he could dare to try and find his mother and brother.

The weight of worry jumped onto his back as he raced against the falling snow, the sick feeling rising in his stomach as the world seemed to slow, and he could only just make out the crowd of people at the bottom of the slope, and he was too far away to reach them.

The tears rose in his eyes and his throat stuck with his choking tears as he realised that he mother and brother were trapped on the slope behind him, if not worse, and now he wouldn't make it to the bottom.

He was going to die.

The sounds of thundering snow deafened him and he could barely think, and in a desperate resort for hope he dived behind one of the jumps that littered the slope, holding himself against its base as the snow poured over him in an endless blitz, and he prayed silently for the end.

Scott knew that he had blacked out for at least a while, waking up and feeling the metres of settled snow crash down on his pounding chest, suffocating him as he shifted and attempted to hoarsely scream out in both panic and a plea for help, but made no sound other than his own choking as he tried to find precious air to no avail; his burning lungs stinging his throat and could have tricked him into believing that he was drowning.

He forced himself to beat blacking out against pushing the snow up, or even just to manage to move it. Perhaps somebody was above him, looking for him. He found that because of the jump, the snow above him wasn't too thick, and moved it carefully, fearing that he would cause another avalanche. Scott released himself from his skis and pulled himself out of the hole by hanging onto the jump, he was strong for his age gasped at the cold air with the determination to live, and felt his adrenaline begin to rush as he felt his head and lungs returning to his body.

Over the mounds of settling snow he could only hear fruitless and empty screams from the bottom of the slope, some of them might have been his brothers' or his father's, but he turned back to look up at the slope and prayed for a sign that his mother and brother were even alive. He trudged carefully in the snow and waited for the rolling mists to clear, but noticed the unmistakable deep fuchsia that he instantly recognised as his mother's coat, but it did not move.

'Maybe she's unconscious, she's still breathing, I'm sure,' he thought to himself, staying a little calm until it occurred to him that if he couldn't see Alan then he was buried in the snow somewhere.

He screamed for his youngest brother and ran towards the coat sticking out of the snow. He knew not to pull on the coat, lest he risk hurting his mother as it was. He tore down the wall of snow in front of him and saw the pinkish-red spread out to him, and in his daze he thought it was just part of the coat. That was until he realised that it was trickling blood, and it flowed past him and stained his trousers, it was still warm and yet it made him shiver.

"Mom?" He called out hoarsely, sinking to his knees as he frantically pulled the snow away. He felt as if someone had shot his skull, he shook violently and began to panic, he knew that the blood was from his mother or brother, or even both. He pulled enough snow away to soon see all he needed to, and immediately wretched, coughing and spluttering as he emptied the sour contents of his stomach onto the pile of snow beside him, tears rising through the casting shadow of deep discomfort as he tried to rid his mouth of the bitter taste to no avail.

Scott finally forced himself to look at the pile in front of him. His mother's skin was pale and washed of all colour, and Scott didn't need to touch her to know that it was cold. She had her arm around Alan and was curled up over him, having tried to protect him. Alan was visibly shaking from the cold but was unconscious, his cheeks were rosy and for a moment Scott was almost thankful that Alan probably wouldn't remember any this.

The trail of blood lead back to his mother, and Scott took her hand, lifting her arm away from Alan and sobbing quietly as he squeezed her limp hand. He didn't need to be told that she was dead.

That was the first that Scott Tracy had his heart broken.

 **Part 2 coming soon! Time for military Scott!**


	2. Chapter 2 Part 1

**Saltwater – Chapter 2 Part I**

 **This part 1 of chapter two, I needed to give Scott's lover an introduction which really needs its own chapter since the heartbreak element is gonna be pretty long if it's included with this, and in all fairness I do not have that kind of energy right now. I am terrible at introducing OCs so if this is cringy and awful as fuck I apologise.**

 **Anyway, on with military!Scott and wartime sweetheart, just as requested!**

The second time Scott Tracy had his heart broken he had gone beyond his mother's death into a world surrounded by: war. He had been conscripted into the Air Force after a turn of events in Central Asia had the American government plunge themselves into an unnecessary battle, and in their greedy determination they had decided to effectively send their children to slaughter in their thousands, and Scott was to be one of them. He had recently left university and was ripe for the picking despite his father's pleas to move abroad or go back to university to avoid enlistment, but Scott would hear none of it, all of his friends were being dragged in, and he no right to run away, or so he felt.

Scott discovered that in war nobody bothered much to preserve their own image, it was about doing all you could to make yourself feel good in case you went down in flames the next day, literally. Most people looked to find love, even if it was only to last for the night. Scott found himself following the crowd and looking for someone that he could love without his family, he wanted to think about something else for just a second. Finding love couldn't difficult for him, could it? Especially where he was, everybody loved a man in uniform, and Scott was no exception. Unfortunately for Scott, he seemed to always deter a little from the unspoken rules. Instead of finding the usual pretty girl in his arms to love, he fell into someone's arms: those of his own squadron leader.

Daniel Elliot was a little taller than him, his build wasn't huge but he was certainly far stronger than he looked. Short black hair and an oddly perfect fringe to go with the blue eyes so deep that Scott could have swam in them. His fair complexion made him look a little more delicate than one might think, but his beauty did nothing but excel how much Scott looked up to him as a pilot. Scott hadn't exactly wanted to be pulled into the war but Daniel almost made his being there worth it with his charm and soft yet strongly-toned Brooklyn accent.

Scott didn't train with Daniel to begin with, as he'd had his birthday drawn from the enlistment lottery before Scott and was a rank above him by the time Scott was made to join. Scott felt an attraction to him the first day he knew him, it wasn't exactly love at first sight, Scott didn't know him well enough for that, but he certainly felt something about the warming smile of the charismatic man who was to only be his friend, close team-mate at most.

At first they had shared barracks, with the rest of the squadron, of course.

Scott couldn't help but become close to him, they worked well together, and they were close with all the other members of their squadron, but over beers before leave and random flight tests and trust-building exercises, anyone else would have believed them to be drifting closer than to anyone else. It was skinny love, they were gazing at each other without even realising it for a lot of the time that they were around each other. Although they were aware of their own feelings, they continued to be blind of each other's affections.

Their love seemed to naturally blossom, without them really being in a relationship, or even aware of it. It was accidental hand touches, coming to each other's determined aid in combat, not even realising how they were literally hugging each other as they helped one another during maintenance checks. There were more than enough sweet gestures, compliments were often with late-night conversations when one of them couldn't sleep, hugs and hot chocolate after awful sorties or bad news from home were more than most others would give, and they had never denied being an item to anyone that asked.

None of this exactly set the ball in motion, but Scott felt there was something more romantic in Daniel's personality than between them. Daniel always wrote to him when they left each other for leave, writing on actual paper rather texting him, convinced that a little old-fashioned was better, and they were of such novelty to Scott that he kept each and every page of the poetic and fluid notes that Daniel would send to him, and was unaware of his smiles and little giggles that he would make on reading with long-awaited excitement. He enjoyed Daniel's words and company too much to be friendly.

Once they had decided to stay after dark in their hangar, taking a much-needed look at Scott's jet, and he couldn't help but laugh a little when he watched Daniel pull a thermos and a box of sandwiches out of his coat pockets.

"What is this? A date?" He had asked ironically.

"Yeah, why not?" Daniel had said, laughing it off shyly to ignore the rose in his sleeve.

Scott was amazingly oblivious to his own happiness, to the comfort he felt in the calming presence of someone like himself, who adored him so dearly and yet he was blind to all affection, secretly afraid of being loved.

The evening continued relatively normally, save for Daniel's odd shyness and unusual timidity towards Scott, stumbling over his words and being very plain, which was suspicious for his outgoing character, and Scott wondered if he should question this strange behaviour; however, he found that he needn't ask, he need only look a little surprised.

"Scott, with your permission, I would very much like to kiss you, may I?" He heard, and for the present moment, he was stunned. Kiss? All the day's events added up to the entire year they had been softly loving about each other and silently flirting, falling into a harmonic spiral of pure adoration without the sensation of their obvious romance, and they had been wildly ignorant.

He thought blankly for a seemingly infinite moment of the pair of lips he subconsciously stared at, having unknowingly felt a wild desire for them, but it all rushed back to him.

Scott looked up at his eyes for a second.

"Yes," he said, almost a slightly shocked whisper. But it was all it took for their unspoken forbidden relationship to begin, and to be tested by the determined arms of war that may char their wings, and pull them apart.

 **Surprise! If you haven't read my early stuff you probably won't know that I've loved the idea pansexual Scott for years, and I wasn't about to miss my opportunity. I realise that Daniel probably has the personality of cardboard, but I'm willing to work on that.**


End file.
